THE CABINET HAS APPROVED THE THAILAND-UNITED STATES FREE FLYING ZONE AGREEMENT

The cabinet has agreed in principle with the free flying zone or ‘open sky’ agreement between Thailand and the United States of America.

Transport Minister Pongsak Raktapongpaisal revealed after the cabinet meeting today that the cabinet has agreed in principle with the Thai-U.S. Open Sky agreement, as proposed by the Ministry of Transport. Under the agreement, airlines of both countries will be provided with special flying privileges to the third nation. The Transport Minister has indicated that, during this time, the number of Thailand’s direct flights to the United States will be increased gradually until the agreement becomes effective in 2010. The main objective is to promote Thailand to be the regional aviation hub, as well as the air cargo and tourism centre. At the same time, there will be an evaluation on the success of this agreement after 3 years of being implemented. Thailand will have the right to call it off if the established working target is not accomplished.

Transport Minister Pongsak also disclosed that he is planning to expand the coverage of this ‘open sky’ agreement to many other countries by the end of this year. They include for instance Japan, Uzbekistan, South Korea, Switzerland and India.

Source: thaisnews.com ประจำวันอังคารที่ 13 กันยายน 2548

This proposed open skies agreement is somewhat bogus. The key point is that an airline has to fly from the US to Thailand (or vice-versa) through a third country (i.e. no non-stop flights permitted). For arguments sake, let's say an airline wants to offer service via Japan. The airline does not need to get any special permission for its US-Thailand service per the open skies agreement, but it instead needs to get permission to fly both Thailand-Japan and Japan-US. Yeah, Thailand might extend special flying privileges to that third nation, but one still needs to get the cooperation of the third nation itself for both legs, which is not necessarily a given.

Is it that way round Ovenman?

I thought it meant that a plane flying say from USA to India, could stop here in Thailand, transit, refuel......and take on more passengers.

< ....or is what i've described 'fifth freedom' rights? >

What i've outlined tends to screw up the local flag-carrier profits and ability to justify high ticket prices, as we would get more airlines hubbing here and selling very cheap seats for onward legs.

Is it that way round Ovenman?

The posted story isn't very clear about this point, but the story in today's Bangkok Post business section is very clear (assuming it's accurate!).

PS - I think you are correct in regards what constitutes fifth freedom rights.